At the End
by HeinousActsZX
Summary: Aranea finally makes her return. Too bad everything's already over.


Aranea suddenly popped back into existence.

What happened? She had just come back to life, she had been ready to scuttle the session, she had been fighting the Condesce, she had-

Oh. Right.

She looked at her hands. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, really, but Aranea could see that she wasn't completely there. She closed her eyes and sighed.

She was dead. Again. Because she failed. Again. She had the opportunity to save the session like she had planned and yet-

No. There was no use dwelling on it. Stay in control.

Aranea slowly opened her and gave her surroundings a clear look for the first time. She was in the dream bubbles, and yet something dramatic had clearly happened to alter the landscape dramatically. There was little left, chunks of rock were floating through the void aimlessly, with no clear direction of up and down. Aranea realized that she wasn't even standing on anything, just floating in the desolation of paradox space. Cautiously, she began to fly through the wreckage, looking for something, anything, that was familiar.

She drifted through the abyss, casually dodging debris, for what seemed like hours. The vast emptiness of the expanse began to feel suffocating. Aranea was starting to get desperate. There had to be something. A memory, a fellow ghost, hell, she'd enjoy the company of imps at this point. To be trapped in this desolate universe alone would be too much to bear.

Just as Aranea's anxieties were reaching a fever pitch, she thought she saw a figure in the distance. They were so small and far that Aranea was sure she was seeing things, but the closer she flew towards the unknown silhouette, the more it became clear: there was someone else in the void!

Aranea was nearly overwhelmed with excitement as she quickly shot through the expanse to meet her fellow. Whoever it was, troll or human, alive or dead, dreaming or awake, it was someone, and that was all that mattered right now. Maybe they knew a way out! Maybe they knew a way back to life! Maybe they would just listen to her stories! Anything would be better than-

Wait. Aranea came to a quick stop as she suddenly saw the figure more clearly. They were a troll, what with their very-familiar set of horns. They were sitting down on a larger chuck of shattered pink moon, wearing black pants with a simple black t-shirt. They were looking away from Aranea, and that gave her a clear view of their long braids flowing out the back of an otherwise very short haircut.

Son of a _fish_.

Meenah was the absolute last person in all of paradox space Aranea wanted to talk to. She would rather fight Lord English alone than have to deal with her former friend right now, especially after everything Aranea had pulled before. Aranea's mind raced as she considered her options, and quickly came to the conclusion that she really only had two. She could bolt and avoid whatever retribution that Meenah undoubtedly had in mind. She'd likely be alone forever, adrift in an endless wasteland in perpetuity, but at least she wouldn't have to deal with the fallout of what she had done, and that was certainly appealing. The other choice, of course, was to suck it up and try to explain herself to Meenah, which, depending on the fuchsia-blood's mood, might be extraordinarily difficult.

Aranea floated in place for a long time before she closed her eyes and nodded to herself. She knew she couldn't bear the loneliness, which left just one option. She was confident she could talk her way back into Meenah's good graces, no matter how temperamental the heiress could get. It might be tricky, of course, but if there was one thing Aranea excelled at, if was convincing people. In the back of her mind she worried that Meenah would attack her immediately, or worse, just reject her outright, but she pushed it away. Stay in control.

She flew, slowly, so as not to be surprising, towards the hunk of rock on which Meenah had been sitting. Just as she was about to open with what she had prepared to say…

" _Fin_ -ally decided to show up, huh?"

Aranea almost fell out of the air. That was not the response she had been expecting at all. And how did she know? Aranea was sure she'd been quiet on approach. Maybe Meenah had seen her approach? Did she have a psychic ability she'd never displayed before? Was there-

"Ya know, normally I'd think ya were ignorin' me, but maybe ya just learned to clam up while ya was alive again."

Aranea shook her head. She had her plan, and she had to stick to it. This new development was not a bad thing. Good, even. She could still make this work. Stay in control. She took a deep breath.

"Meenah. It's good to _sea_ you again." Aranea emphasized, hoping Meenah would catch on.

Slowly, the Thief of Life turned to face Aranea, before they finally looked at each other face-to-face for the first time in a very long while. Meenah was still dead, of course, but her featureless eyes almost seemed to gleam as she stared at the cerulean-blood. Her razor-sharp teeth were smiling as ever.

"Fish puns, eh? Ya always knew how to push my buttons, Serket." Aranea smiled back. It was working! Maybe there was hope things could return to normal after all!

Meenah suddenly dropped her smile, though, as she moved to stand from her seated position. As she stretched her long, lanky arms, she added, "Too bad ya couldn'ta been assed to kelp us out when we needed ya."

Aranea frowned. Another wrench in the plan. "I assure you, dear, that I only just got back here myself. I assume that some technicality regarding the Ring of Life, combined with my God Tier status and the odd nature of time in the furthest ring, prevented me from returning in a timely manner."

Meenah's eyes narrowed. "Ya never shoulda left in the first plaice."

Aranea would not be intimidated. "I did what was necessary. The session had to be scuttled to be saved, and I was the only one who could have done it."

Meenah scoffed. "An' that worked out so well for ya, didn't it? If it weren't for Pyrope Jr. and little buoy blue, yer little adventure woulda ruined it for everybody!"

"Well, at least I _tried_ something! You all were content with throwing yourselves away against English, who we _know_ we couldn't beat! I tried to stop him before he could ever even start!"

"An' ya couldn't do it 'cause ya tried to do it all yerself!" Meenah spread her arms. "Ya know where we are? This is what's left a' the furthest ring after we all blew that green sucka to bits!"

Aranea's eyes widened. "You… how… you didn't…"

"We did. I dunno all the details, reel-ly, but Vriska got that juju she wanted, launched it at that muscly prick, and before I knew it everthin' was gone."

Aranea tried to stammer a response, but nothing coherent would come out. Had it all been for nothing? Had she only ended up making things worse?

Meenah had fallen silent, but continued to glare at Aranea, teeth clenched and fists clenched. Then, all at once, she seemed to soften as her body sagged.

"How could ya leave me? I thought we were friends. I thought we were… _more_ than friends."

Meenah sank back down to a sitting position with a heavy sigh.

Aranea had been prepared for a lot, but not for this. Her mind was furiously spinning, trying to find a way to help calm herself down and explain herself to Meenah. It was difficult to keep it all together.

Stay in control.

Aranea slowly glided to the rock and gently floated down next to Meenah, who seemed lost in thought.

"Meenah, it's not you." Meenah seemed to shift her head slightly. "I promise it was never, _ever_ you."

"We were stuck, so long, in that awful session. And then we were stuck even longer in the dream bubbles. And everything we ever did, _everything_ , was influenced by that awful monster. We weren't important; we were just stepping stones to some goal of someone who couldn't care less about us."

Meenah had turned to face Aranea now. The Sylph of Light could not pierce the neutral expression worn by her friend.

"And I thought that, maybe, if I took extreme steps of my own, I could carve out something for me, to take control, because… because I just wanted…"

Aranea closed her eyes. She was near her breaking point, she had to stop, to slow down, to run, she couldn't fall apart. Stay in control. Stay in control. Stay in…

She felt tears begin to fall down her face. "I just wanted to matter. I just wanted to mean something to the world. To make some kind of difference. And I couldn't." Aranea shut her eyes tighter as her tears began to flow even more freely. Look at her. A failure in every sense, reduced to nothing in the middle of the void. What could she possibly mean to anyone? How could she possibly be worthy of anything Aranea hung her head in shame.

Then she felt a pressure on her cheek, wiping away her tears. A second pressure on the other side of her face, and she felt her head being gently tilted up. She slowly opened her eyes.

Meenah was smiling. Not a sarcastic smirk like she wore before and not smarmy grin like she'd had many times in the past. It was a soft smile, so unlike Meenah, and it was directed right at Aranea. She was holding Aranea's face in her hands, stroking her cheeks with careful fingers that brushed aside tears.

"Aranea, ya big lunk." Meenah sniffed, and a tear ran down her face, too. "Ya do matter. Ya matter to me more'n I think I could possibly ever tell ya."

Aranea felt her face get hot, and her eyes welled up all over again.

"When yer tellin' yer stories, or teachin' me random stuff, or yer goin' on some silly adventure wit' me, you _do_ mean somethin' to me. Shell, I'd be dead way sooner'n I already am if ya hadn'ta drag my ass to that cocoon."

Meenah began to tremble slightly as she held Aranea. Aranea felt herself begin to tremor as well.

"Ya didn't need to be a leader, or a savior or anythin' like that. All ya hadda be was _you_ , nobody else. Ya matter just the way ya are, Aranea, an' don't ever yerself ya don't."

Aranea was overcome. Tears were streaming down both of their faces. Aranea reached out to Meenah, to hold her, to feel her, to tell her she was sorry, to tell her that she _loved_ her, to take in everything about her. Taking Meenah's face into her own hands, Aranea brought her as close to herself as she could and kissed her. Meenah wrapped her arms around the sylph's body to bring her even closer, and pulled her in as tight as she could. The embrace was held by the two for what felt like forever, because neither of them wanted to stop holding each other, to stop being together, to stop being one.

Eventually, the two slowly pulled apart, never breaking eye contact as they did. Meenah leaned contentedly into the hand that still tenderly held her head, as Aranea took one of Meenah's hands in her own.

"Meenah, I'm sorry."

"Ya don't gotta…"

"I'm sorry that for so long I missed what I never realized I'd had right next to me. I just hope that…"

"Yeah?"

"For as long as this lasts, whatever we do in the future, I just hope I can stay by your side."

Meenah took Aranea's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Till the end, Aranea."

Aranea smiled again as she leaned into Meenah once more. Meenah accepted her advance again as they embraced each other as close as they could.

The two sat on the rock in the limitless emptiness of paradox space.

Together, forever, at last.


End file.
